Epilogue
There was nothing quite like a May Day party.
At least, Ditty thought so. As she put the finishing touches onto the bunting she, Mavis and Avril had worked on together, she couldn’t help but feel proud of her work.
Even if her stitches were only half as good and twice as wide as those of her friends.
‘You’ll get the hang of it one day,’ said Avril with a smile.
Mavis snorted. ‘Perhaps. She still can’t bake to save her life!’
The three of them giggled, Ditty hardly able to believe this was her life now.
Of course, it wasn’t the plan. There had been no plan. Just love, love of Henry and his love of her. Love for Brexley. Love for the Brexley Lodge for Gentlemen and Ladies of a Certain Age, for everyone who lived in this wonderful town.
Making the decision to move here and start building a life, a real life, had seemed so obvious. And even now, months later, she knew she had made the right decision. There was no better place for her than Brexley.
‘And you like it? The bunting, that is?’ asked Mavis carefully.
Precisely why it mattered so much what she thought of the bunting, Ditty did not know, but she smiled. ‘It’s beautiful.’
‘Well, I’ll ask Jim to help me hoist it up,’ said Avril, carefully folding up the bunting. ‘Mavis, aren’t you needed in the kitchen?’
Mavis sniffed. ‘I’m always needed in the kitchen—you leave those people alone in there for five minutes…’
The two older women bustled away, leaving Ditty alone for a moment in the study.
Not Henry’s study. Her study.
Ditty smiled as sunshine poured through the windows—now mended and watertight—onto the carefully organised study.
A new filing cabinet in one corner was expertly labelled with all the different categories a housekeeper of the Lodge would need. Medical records, lists of birthdays and anniversaries, schedules for pottery classes and waltzing classes and baking classes…
Ditty had made sure they ordered three filing cabinets. There was no point in being organised, as she had told Henry countless times, if you then couldn’t find the things you’d carefully put away.
She had been able to justify that decision just two weeks after she had made her permanent move to the town which had so captured her heart and Charles made an exciting discovery.
‘Henry, what is this?’ Charles had interrupted them.
‘How should I know?’ Henry muttered, his temper so obviously flaring that Ditty had been forced to hide her smile.
The three of them had been clearing out the study, and her future brother-in-law was holding out a piece of paper with a serious expression.
‘I think you should read this,’ said Charles quietly.
It was only when Henry took the paper that she realised just how pale Charles’s face was. ‘Oh, you know I never trained in the law, man, how am I supposed to—’
‘It says that you are rich,’ Charles said bluntly.
Ditty stared between the two men. Rich? No. No, surely the man she adored could not have been so foolish as to be accidentally sitting on a fortune—
‘No it doesn’t,’ Henry said, wide-eyed.
‘Yes, it does,’ his brother said quietly. ‘A mine the duchy owns, that the Duke of Glanyrafon owns, it’s found gold! Look here. That number?’
She moved to stand behind Henry, and was forced to grab his arm as her head swam. ‘Th-that is a lot of zeroes.’
‘How could you not have known this was here?’ Charles demanded. ‘You’re the Duke of Glanyrafon, you’d think you’d read your own letters! You have been sitting on a fortune!’
And so he had. Ditty had investigated, with Henry’s assistance, and discovered that the great-uncle who had driven the duchy into the ground had also made some fairly wise investments, which Henry had immediately shared with his brother, before the repairs to the Lodge began.
And such repairs. There was a large calendar behind the desk, a week by week look at the activities hosted at the Lodge.
Avril would be giving another talk on the history of the town, Ditty could see just by glancing at it, and waltzing would be stopping for the summer.
It was too hot, she had told Henry more than once, and they needed to take care of their residents.
That’s why the new bathing pool would be opening today, as part of the May Day celebrations.
Ditty sighed happily. Laid out on the console table before the sofa where she was sitting were her plans for the next three months.
The roof had been sorted and there was now no concern of damp—but she would like to extend the plans for the kitchen gardens.
There was already a waiting list in the Lodge for plots.
Brian had told her in no uncertain terms that if he didn’t get one soon, then he wouldn’t be able to plant spinach in time, which to Ditty had sounded rather serious.
In fact, if she just spent an extra five minutes—
A knock on the door made Ditty look up, and the person who had entered made her smile.
‘You are working too hard,’ said the Duke of Glanyrafon with a grin.
She returned his smile. ‘Occupational hazard of the job, I suppose.’
‘I don’t know, the last housekeeper was never this organised, never had this many plans,’ teased Henry as he stepped into what had been, until a few months ago, his study.
She could not help but laugh. ‘I know. That’s why I took over.’
Their laughter mingled in the air as he sat beside her, but she was right.
It just made sense. Within weeks of her settling into one of the spare bedchambers at the Lodge—though they were engaged to be married, it would be scandalous for her to take a bedchamber in the manor itself—Ditty had already reorganised the meal plan to make better use of the space in the kitchen, started a treat night on Fridays when the residents could gorge themselves on Reg’s best Italian dishes, and started clearing through Henry’s paperwork.
Their wedding? Well, it would have to wait. They hadn’t exactly ceased their nighttime adventures, and there was just so much else to do, wasn’t there?
You don’t have to keep going through my paperwork! Henry had protested, more than once. It’s not like you work here!
But that hadn’t remained true for long.
‘Do you ever miss it?’ Ditty asked, placing her head on his shoulder.
‘What?’
‘Being the one in charge here. This place being yours to run,’ she said quietly, looping her arm into his.
She’d never asked him before, but it had been weighing on her mind for a while. The closer they got to the May Day party, Ditty had realised just how much she was doing now at the Lodge.
It made sense, on paper. She was the organised one, he was the one who could finally concentrate on being a doctor. Being a duke. Understanding his responsibilities as a landowner with tenants and an income—thanks to the discovered goldmine—that would make most of the peerage’s eyes water.
But still. Ditty’s stomach twisted painfully. Since they had become engaged to be married, she didn’t want to change him. Or Brexley.
Henry sighed, squeezing her arm. ‘You are a far better person in charge than I ever was.’
‘But—’
‘Will you just take the compliment, Ditty?’ he said with a laugh. ‘You were an excellent proposal planner, yes. I won’t deny it. But you are a truly inspirational leader.’
Joy curled around her heart.
She was. Oh, she knew it was not appropriate to think that, let alone say it. But when you looked at it, Henry had never been suited to that sort of thing. He was still learning what it was to be a duke, Ditty had learned with a roll of her eyes.
Now there was a man who never read his own letters. All those months, with a small fortune hidden in the paperwork of his own study!
‘Well, I have to admit, I do love it,’ said Ditty with a smile. ‘And I’ve been looking forward to today for—’
‘There she is!’
Ditty sat up hastily and squealed with delight as she saw Calliope, blond hair and crisp white gown as she always wore in the spring, standing in the doorway. ‘You’re here! I thought you were coming tomorrow, I was set to collect you from the staging—’
‘I decided to come a day early!’ Calliope said with a grin.
Ditty stepped forward and pulled her sister into a tight hug. Oh, it was wonderful to have her here. She never regretted her decision to leave London and make a life here in Brexley—all except leaving her sisters. Their mother, on the other hand, well, she could be Calliope’s problem.
She looked behind Calliope, but could see no one else. ‘No Thalia?’
‘She’s busy planning a poetry tour with her friend Alexandra—you know how she gets,’ said her sister, rolling her eyes.
‘But you’re here! Oh, I must show you around,’ said Ditty excitedly. Then she turned back to Henry, who was laughing. ‘If that’s quite all right with—’
‘Go and spend time with your sister,’ said Henry with a laugh. ‘It’s good to see you again, Calliope.’
‘Come on, I want to be shown around!’ said Calliope, slipping her arm into Ditty’s. ‘Where shall we start?’
There was so much to look at, Ditty hardly knew where to begin. The May Day party had started in earnest as she and Calliope left her study, and it took almost an hour to do the whole tour.
They started in the drawing room, now with a mended fireplace; then the kitchen, packed with culinary contraptions of the height of fashion all down one wall; next her bedchamber upstairs which looked over Brexley Forest; and ended with the celebration outside by the bathing pool, Reg’s food going down a treat and Miss Vivienne acting as watchdog.
‘Oi! Careful there, we’ll have none of that!’ she yelled across the pool as Avril came up spluttering, gown plastered to her skin, but with a huge grin. ‘Who told you jumping into the bathing pool was allowed?’
Ditty giggled as Calliope stood agog in the sunshine.
‘Did that woman just—’
‘That’s Avril. We haven’t been able to keep control of her,’ said Ditty with a laugh. ‘Come on, let’s see what’s over here.’
Mavis, that was what. She was managing a table where delicious sandwiches, cakes and a huge vat of lemonade was being shared out.